The Surge milker works great for dairy goats, been using mine for 20+ yrs. with no problems, bought it used, easier than milking by hand.

We show Registered Nubian Dairy goats in Maryland, CAE negative and LA scores by American Dairy Goat Association

Nubian goat kids available in the spring 2014

Any question please email me. I have been using a Surge milker and Surge vacuum pump for 20+ years.When you see a milker advertised it usually only includes the pail, pulsator, lid maybe the check valve and gasket. No vacuum pump.

Photo of a later model Surge milker set up for goats.

Occasionally the connector will get a air block and the milk will not want to flow through. If this happens get a tiny drill bit close to the thickness of a safety pin, drill bit and drill a hole (one hole only, two would make the milk leak out) in the milk hose about 1/2 inch from the end where attached to the connector. I have doen this before but rarely is it needed. This will allow air into the line and the milk will flow through fine. If you have a problem with the hole being to large you and always cut the small end off the hose and try with a smaller bit. I use a very tiny bit. Possibly from a craft shop. A large safety pin with the end heated on a gas range would melt through the hose to make a hole. Do not drill a hole in the inflation. The dairy farmers never had that problem, I think my hose was to thin walled when I was learning how to milk and would collapse. The approved milk/vacuum hose have been ok.

This is similar to cow set up, showing 2 inflations shells, milk and vacuum line instead of 4 needed for cows. There are plug its (the black things with chains) in the inflations which are helpful if your vacuum pump is not strong enough, they keep thevacuum in the other inflations while you are putting one or two on the cow. With goat you can usually get enough vacuum to get two on at once, but we don't have 4 hands for a cow. You can buy shuts off at Home Depo for tubes but they are hard to clean, and cause more bacteria problems. A good heavy duty vacuum pump with at least 1/2 H P. eliminates the problem with shortage of vacuum. I feel a air tank on the vacuum pump is a must for cows. Even at shows the cow people have air tanks on vacuum pumps for milking cows.

Weight of empty milker pail large about 12 1/2 lb. medium about 12 lb. small about 9 1/2 lb.

I have seen these advertised as holding 50-60 lbs. milk for the largest Surge, 40-50 lb. for the medium Surge. Actually capacity is less than that. However I weighted the pails by adding water, I filled to about 1 1/2 in from the top of the pail, I could have got more in but then it would be to hard carry without splashing out.

The largest milker held 45 lbs of water, Medium 42 lbs. Small 40 lbs. Milk weight is a little different than water. Now you can fill it more but that is your option, a check valve is suppose to keep milk from overflowng into your lid, but you don't usually have the lid on when you carry it. For a cow if you are using it hung from the stomach you may want a check valve which is about $9.00. You can also milk cows with the longer goat hose, but all the cow farmers I know use a Surcingle strap and rod to hold the pail under the cow still available new at farm/dairy stores. I think I would rather put a stool under the cow and set the pail on it instead of fooling with the strap.